New Light on Delinquency
- Author:
Wm. Healy
and Augusta F. Bronner. Published for the Institute of Human Relations by the Yale University Press, 1936, $2. Oxford University Press, 9/-.
When such a well-known authority as Dr Wm. Healy and the scarcely less famous Dr Augusta Bronner collaborate in the ?writing of a book on delinquency, it must be regarded as an event of some consequence in the psychological world, and when it is realised that this is by far the most important work which the Judge Baker Guidance Centre has produced, it will be read, as it deserves to be, by psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers, probation officers, magistrates and all others who take a serious interest in problems of juvenile crime. It should also be mentioned that this is a book ” eminently suitable to the intelligent lay public “; in short, it is attractively written with a minimum of pretentious professional jargon. Thus the first duty of the reviewer (to indicate whether a book should be read or not) can be quickly answered in the affirmative.
The ” Nerv Light on Delinquency and its Treatment” is the “result of a research conducted for the Institute of Human Relations of Yale University “, and for the most part describes a three years’ study of 105 delinquent children who are compared with a similar number of non-delinquents, belonging to the same families, who thus act as controls. There is also a very frank account of the results of the treatment employed which gives an indication of the success to be expected in the treatment of delinquency by Child Guidance methods, even though the ” extent and intensity of the services rendered were much greater than could be expected from an ordinary clinic”. From reading these careful studies we can say without hesitation that they are of immense help, not only to those engaged in the treatment of delinquency, but also as a basis for future work of this kind. We can but regret indeed that there exists so few foundations willing to finance research work and so few Healy and Bronners to carry it out. With so much valuable material passing through our juvenile courts, child guidance clinics, remand homes and approved schools, it seems prodigal to make so little use of it. One cannot but feel that this neglect of opportunity arises from the tendency, all too prevalent in this country, to view delinquency ” merely as an exhibition of vicious, naughty or irrational behaviour “?a viewpoint, in our opinion, which can be utterly contradicted by any study such as Healy and Bronner have made.
It was only when we came to read the final chapter in which the authors question what new light they had discovered on delinquency that we experienced a slight sense of disappointment, for frankly there seemed little which was entirely novel in the answers. Perhaps, however, it would be more just to say that the practical implications of these studies were those which one would have expected from one’s clinical experience. One must remind oneself, too, that subjective judgments are of little value compared with the conclusions drawn from studies made with as great scientific accuracy as can be expected in the field of human behaviour. None the less, one closes the book with the feeling that a less ambitious and ponderous title would have been more appropriate.
In conclusion we would like to endorse the statement made in the penultimate pages of this book that there is ” no royal road to success” in the treatment of delinquency. We agree also that: “for the sake of relief from our extraordinary national burden of delinquency and crime, much greater interest must be manifested not only in expert zvork with individual offenders, but also in mass attacks upon this ivhole problemStatements such as these could be made admirable texts … but a reviewer has no right to preach a sermon, however great the temptation. Deprived of that privilege, we can but commend this book to all who study, treat or sit in judgment upon delinquents. D. R. McC.
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